Good, the ant's soul was right ahead, wrapped in a thin layer of light. Hah, this little protection was as fragile as an eggshell. It sneered, swung a tentacle, and smashed straight into the light sphere, shattering it into Shards as expected, since that faint glow could not stop the monster.
But inside the eggshell was not the fragile soul it expected. Instead, something strange was revealed, a mass of black mist.
"…?"
Not seeing the expected soul, it prepared to strike again. The black mist looked oddly familiar, but it would not stop it… hmm?
Familiar? Why did it feel familiar? If it felt familiar, it must have seen it before, and not long ago. But it had been staying in Abyss the whole time, so when had it seen something like this?
This black… …mist?
"Hey."
A familiar fluctuation that could be called a voice came from behind, and a hand rested on its body.
"The roast chicken is about to be gone."
"…" "…!" "Roooar…!"
There was no need to turn around, as the eyes on its back opened directly. It saw another familiar black figure, and instinctively all the eyes on its body snapped open, tentacles bristling as it let out a terrified hiss.
Before it could scream twice, a massive fist smashed it away with surging power. A blockbuster of soul exploded on the spot, far more severe than mere damage to a body.
Before it could react, that thing rushed in front of Hedorah and grabbed the body, delivering a storm of relentless punches.
"Damn it, I knew something felt off. Turns out you little bastard ran over here!" "Daring to mess around right under my nose, that is a first. Even scam calls dare to come to me now!"
It opened its huge mouth and simulated the desired Fusion Reaction Beam in this place, blasting the already battered Hedorah away. At the same time, it carefully protected the soul behind it, wrapping it in another layer of black mist.
Hedorah shook its head, barely regaining clarity, and the first thing it felt was disbelief. It was not just fear, but utter incomprehension at how this thing could chase it here.
This was inside the world itself, so why was there no repulsion? And how could it precisely find the weakness, when both were chosen-believer rituals with random descent points? How could it still be tracked here?
Confusion came first, then roaring, and finally frantic flight. Belial naturally pounced on it, biting and beating it nonstop.
This was not the main body, but fighting within the scope of Mindscape was still its specialty. Diablo was a hard counter to this kind of thing.
After taking a beating, Hedorah observed and finally realized that the Belial in front of it was not the main body far away in Abyss, but only a part. It also figured out how this part got here, and understood the result, a result that nearly broke it.
Why could Belial Blink from faraway Abyss directly into this person's mental space? The answer was not by following the Spatial Rift.
It was through the same principle as Hedorah itself. Through the god-descent prayer ritual just chanted by Alba, following the Spatial Rift, it was summoned here as well.
In other words, the ant it had chosen was actually this Black Dragon's favored one in the world. That ritual not only brought it in, but also dragged the original the Lord over.
Since the prayer worked on Hedorah, it definitely worked on Belial too.
No, you were a favored one and connected to him, why did you not say it earlier? And why were you so weak? If you were even a bit stronger, I would have suspected something.
Hedorah was on the verge of collapse. True despair was not being thrown directly into Abyss, but being given a bit of light called hope while the other was in Abyss, only to be told in the end that it was not light, but deeper despair.
Belial also found it strange. Just earlier, it was still searching for where this guy's soul had gone, when suddenly its friend-space notification rang.
Even more surprising was that it was its first friend, the one it had personally come to find. Finally making contact should have been good news.
But after opening the chat channel, something felt wrong. They had talked once or twice before, so the voice and aura were already familiar. This time it was the same kind of familiarity, but it was the familiarity of the Hedorah it had just beaten up.
It almost fell into deep thought, but when it noticed that the other side had opened a small channel, it decided to check it out. As soon as it arrived, it saw Hedorah trying to steal its friend's account.
No matter how you looked at it, this deserved a heavy punch.
"Well damn, you actually ran here. I did not expect that." "But come to think of it, the person I was looking for was actually inside Starter Village the whole time. So why did I go through all that trouble to come here?"
Holding Hedorah in its hand, now beaten down until only a barely breathing fragment of soul remained, Belial looked at its friend. Hmm, this condition did not look very good.
Thinking about it, the person it was searching for had been in another region all along. It was a bit awkward, but it seemed it had misunderstood things back then.
Mephist accepted it quickly anyway. Even if it was not for finding someone, it would have come down sooner or later.
Besides, it had eaten quite well, and the speed of getting stronger was extremely fast. After thinking for a while, Belial felt there was no rush to go back, since continuing to grind levels here was not bad either.
Once all threats were eliminated, it could return anytime. Moreover, with such a small Rift, it could not squeeze in anyway.
But first, it had to deal with its friend's aftermath. That account theft almost ruined them completely.
"First is the injuries. This is terrible, and so weak. This body is about as frail as a modern human." "I will heal it on the way, but judging by this, this friend might know what is going on over my side, and maybe can keep feeding me strategies from here."
After casually using cellular reorganization to treat the other, Belial thought again. This friend clearly had a lot of knowledge about dozens of familiar faces here, so maybe they could provide information on how to find the ones hiding here.
That was what Belial cared about most right now, ideally something useful. But looking at the soul's fluctuations, it was obviously unconscious, so talking was not possible at the moment.
"And my current state cannot last long either. So what can I do?"
It was only temporarily using this Rift to transmit a signal, and at this healing speed, the Rift would close soon. When that happened, it could not just tear open another one every time it wanted to communicate.
Was there a better way, like a stronger signal base station? Using Alba's body, Belial looked around, then glanced at the book in one hand and the red soul in the other.
Suddenly, things began to connect in its mind. A powerful signal source, an effective communication method, and portable as well.
It had a bold idea. Looking at the book and the soul in its left and right hands, it brought them closer together.
"How about…" "I try making a portable little communicator?"
He thought it through and then did it, since the experimental materials dying was not his problem. First, it needed some handling, because stuffing a highly condensed soul mass full of resentment straight into someone would be lucky to end without being haunted. In short, he would eat this thing first, filter it once, and keep only the purest part of its power.
Then he kneaded the remaining power, mashed it together with the book, and casually added a bit of his own material. After that, it looked more or less done. He muttered that although his traits meant he could not dye it white or black, that was fine as long as it worked.
Next came the treatment, though he could not help complaining about how terrible this constitution was. He thought the child from last time was already the limit, yet there was someone even worse. It was as fragile as a modern college student, where a random touch could mean anything from light injury to the ICU, but as long as the soul was still there, he could fix it.
He paused and asked why this soul was red as well. It felt strange, and he wondered if this was some kind of work trip, since the body was beaten to this state and the god behind it still had not stepped in. Maybe even being a Divine Emissary meant paying out of pocket for overtime.
Belial sighed while thinking that working people might really be like this. Even as a Divine Emissary, it did not mean life was easy. He rushed through the healing, did what he could, and then tossed the person back where they came from.
"The Rift is closing. Damn, we finally met in person and did not even talk much. Forget it, next time."